


Nest

by thatbigsinner



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alpha Angeal Hewley, Alpha Sephiroth (Compilation of FFVII), Alpha Zack Fair, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, M/M, Multi, Nesting, Omega Cloud Strife, Omega Genesis Rhapsodos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-07
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22598755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatbigsinner/pseuds/thatbigsinner
Summary: Cloud gets better intense nesting instincts before his heat. He steals all of Sephiroth’s blankets to construct his nest, even though he knows he won’t be happy when he finds out.
Relationships: Zack Fair/Angeal Hewley/Genesis Rhapsodos/Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Comments: 9
Kudos: 532





	Nest

He didn’t know if this was going to be enough. 

Cloud stared, with his hands on his hips, deliberating. No. He wasn’t satisfied, and he wasn’t going to bite his tongue this time. 

In the few days before Cloud went properly into heat, his nesting instincts went into overdrive. He wanted the widest, softest bed with the largest pile of soft, fluffy blankets he could construct. If he could have a swimming pool filled with comforters, he would, but he would make do. 

Once he had settled into the strange pack he made with Angeal, Zack, Sephiroth, and Genesis, he started indulging in the nesting. There hadn’t been much to work with in the trooper barracks, but now that he was essentially staying with the Firsts, he had better options. 

Genesis’s bed was always the one he requisitioned. It was the largest, and the softest, and that made it the best for this. Genesis might be another omega, but he somehow never had much interest in nesting. Still, he was happy to help Cloud—apparently, when he was curled up in his nest, he looked “just like a chocobo chick” and it was “absolutely precious.” He was always more irritated about those comments after his heat had passed; when he was nesting, he was too content to bother, and too distracted when in his heat proper. 

He’d started with just Genesis’s blankets. First it was just the ones in the bedroom, then he raided the spare room, and the third time he hit the whole apartment. Then he did the same progression through Angeal’s apartment. Then Zack’s. He had been holding off on Sephiroth’s, because, despite his willingness to share with his pack, he was still territorial. If it belonged in his space, he wanted to keep it there. Cloud had been willing to work with that so far. 

But now he was staring at a mound of carefully sculpted blankets and thinking that it wasn’t quite  _ enough _ , and that Sephiroth was arguably the quickest to cave to Cloud’s Pathetic Omega look. 

Fuck it. 

Cloud used the keycards he had been given to everyone’s apartments to steal their blankets, and he did the same with Sephiroth. They were all still about their days, but Sephiroth always got him leave the second the nesting instincts kicked in. He claimed it was part of the heat process and therefore not an abuse of power to get him the time off. Cloud wasn’t about to argue. Any time he was out of his nest when he got like this, he was crabby at best, stressed most realistically, and outright bitchy at worst. It was better for everyone if he had the time off. 

He snuck in and out of Sephiroth’s apartment like a ghost, his arms full of blankets that nearly trailed the ground behind him. He was careful that they didn’t quite— _ that _ , Sephiroth might not forgive him for. 

Cloud tossed them into the pile in Genesis’s room and went about arranging them until he was content. He climbed into the nest and settled himself with a deep, deep sigh. 

This was perfect. This was the nest he’d been dreaming of for years. Even if Sephiroth  _ was _ mad at him, it would be worth it, just for this moment. 

Cloud wasn’t even sure when it happened. Probably immediately. All he knew was that the contentment had overwhelmed him, and he’d felt so at ease that he’d slipped quietly into sleep, curled up amidst the blankets. 

The next thing he knew, he was waking up to the sound of a slamming door. He bolted upright in his nest, looking around blearily, not sure what was going on. He was starting to piece it together when he heard two camera clicks go off. 

Cloud scrubbed at his eyes hurriedly and scowled at Zack and Genesis, who were lowering their phones with matching grins, while Angeal stood at their side, looking slightly apologetic but mostly amused. They were all clustered by the doorway. 

“Sunshine, you’re the cutest thing on Gaia, y’know that?” Zack cooed, and Cloud scowled back at him. 

“I am not. Delete those photos.”

“Absolutely not,” Genesis said, Zack nodding his agreement. “You look adorable, all bleary-eyed in your nest.”

“Fuck you too.”

Both Genesis and Zack cooed at him, while Angeal chuckled quietly. 

“I suppose this would explain it.”

The three SOLDIERs in the door turned to look at Sephiroth, whose expression was hard but already softening. 

Cloud fought back the urge to sigh. He knew this was coming; he’d just wanted to be more awake for it. 

“Listen, Seph—“

“You know I like my things to remain where they belong, Cloud.”

Cloud put on his best, most pathetic face. He let his eyes go wide and round and bat his eyelashes just a little. He tried his best to look as sad and needy as he could, and knew it worked when he heard three immediate answering rumbles from the alphas in the room. Genesis just laughed under his breath. Cloud sent him the briefest glare to tell him to shut up before he ruined it, but Genesis looked unrepentant. Cloud had to plaster back on his Omega Face before the alphas in the room stopped being blinded by it. 

He looked down at his lap and fiddled with a blanket as he said, “I  _ know _ , I just—couldn’t fight my instincts.” He heard breaths catch from the doorway. “I  _ needed _ a perfect nest. I need to be ready for my heat.” Now, for the final touch: Cloud looked up, expression desperate, and whined, “You’ll spend it with me, won’t you?”

“Yes,” Angeal and Zack blurted in sync, but behind them, Sephiroth’s eyes were burning. 

“I think,” he said, his voice carefully controlled despite the warning edges of a growl to it, “that Cloud owes me a favor for borrowing my things.”

“He borrowed all our things!” Zack protested. “You can’t keep him for his whole heat because you’re being fussy about  _ blankets _ .”

“It won’t be the whole heat,” Cloud promised, in his best soothing tones. When the three alphas looked at him, he purred calmly and blinked slowly, placidly. All three relaxed immediately, while Genesis scoffed and folded his arms over his chest. “It won’t. But you can have me first, Sephiroth, when I’m neediest. You just have to share after. Okay?”

Sephiroth huffed by grumbled, “Fine.”

Cloud immediately stowed the act and grinned. The alphas all blinked, as their instincts stopped screaming at them. Angeal sighed with a smile while Sephiroth seemed more concerned with enjoying the sight of Cloud bundled in his nest. Zack was rolling his eyes, and seemed a little more put out about being played than the others, but he also knew he hadn’t really been the target. Said target was quietly stepping through their pack to approach the nest, until Cloud tutted at him. 

“Nests are omega-only until heat, you know that.”

It was one of the few rules. It stopped Genesis from feeling left out, like he couldn’t help Cloud at all through his heat. He couldn’t help with the main event without a knot, but he could help with the nesting stage. Having a second omega made the nest feel more like a home, like lived-in pack territory. It settled the instinct that there wouldn’t be enough people around to care for any young. Besides, Genesis liked scenting the nest and knowing that, even if he wasn’t present much during the heat, he was still there in his own way. 

Genesis looked terribly smug as he approached, shoulder checking Sephiroth out of the way. It was a testament to how close to the surface his instincts were that he growled a warning at Genesis. Anyone else would have at least hesitated, and Cloud himself went still, but Genesis laughed as he climbed into the nest. He was long in the practice of ignoring alpha warnings, even and especially Sephiroth’s. Genesis settled himself and then pulled Cloud into his lap, nudging his jaw with his nose so he would tilt his head to the side. Cloud sighed and rolled his eyes but complied, so Genesis could rub his scent over Cloud’s throat. 

Angeal rolled his eyes at the gesture, but laughed at the matching looks of disappointment on Zack and Sephiroth’s faces. 

“Come on, you two; you’ll spend plenty of time in that nest later.”

“But—“ Zack started. 

“ _ Zack _ ,” everyone but Sephiroth said in the same moment. Sephiroth, instead, hid a laugh in a careful cough. 

“Out,” Genesis ordered, and Angeal grabbed the other two by the shoulders, steering them out of the room. 

Genesis kissed Cloud’s scent gland carefully, and Cloud slumped back against him with a sigh. 

“They always have to fuss,” Cloud mumbled, taking Genesis’s arms and wrapping them around his waist; Genesis hardly seemed to mind. 

“You make it worse when you pull the Needy Omega act, you know.”

Cloud scowled and looked up at Genesis, who was watching him with amusement. 

“You pull that act way more than I do.”

“Yes. But I don’t then complain when my alphas fuss over me. If you don’t like it, stop setting them back to their instincts.”

“But that’s how I  _ win _ ,” Cloud huffed. 

Genesis laughed and said, “I know, dear; if I didn’t, I wouldn’t do it myself.”

“I’ll think about it,” Cloud grumbled in the tone that said he wouldn’t actually and that he had been more interested in complaining than a solution. 

“Of course you will, love,” Genesis said on a laugh, his tone stating his disbelief while his endearment softened the blow. 

There was a long pause where neither said anything and Genesis resumed his quest to press his scent into Cloud’s skin. 

“It  _ is _ a very nice nest,” Genesis eventually admitted. 

“Is that the omega in you talking, or my lover who stood by and laughed instead of helping and wants me to forget that he did that?”

“Can it not be both?”

“It can, but it leans towards…?”

Genesis reluctantly grumbled, “My inner omega.”

He hated admitting that he had instincts, but hated admitting what those instincts told him even more. It was Cloud’s revenge for the earlier laughter to make him say it, yes, but it was also nice to know that someone with similar instincts also approved of his work. 

Cloud tilted his face up to kiss Genesis on the cheek. 

“There. Now we’re even.”


End file.
